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I tell hts running wild, sparked by one small measure of desire for the first tie a thing

I still wake up wet and wanting him

I still take one look in those blue eyes and dreaainst mine

HONK!

There’s a loud noise I snap back to reality to find a car speeding past me to overtake The driver shakes his fist at lance down I’ve slowed to twenty o, Carina, I scoldlike a horny teenager Get your mind back on the road before you wind up dead in a ditch!

I turn hts back to the task ahead ofhoitive I feel a shiver of nerves as Beachwood Bay recedes further in the rearviewI’ve left behind

I don’t knohat to think I can’t hide away forever, not even in ically be wiped clean, but there are tooall the ti when I’ll be back from my so-called spa retreat Then there’s the simple fact that I need to pack up for real this time: I barely threw a handful of outfits in my case when I left, and despite the ancient washer-dryer in the apartain Suzie’s baby shower sees to rest for good, but now that I’m on the road, every instinct in my body screams at me to turn around and drive back

Back to Beachwood, to the safety of the little new apart ht of the world

Back to Garrett

By the time I pull into the drive back at er so structure of stone and bea with the sound of hedge-trimmers and leaf-blowers

For a moment, it feels like the last ten days haven’t happened Nothing’s changed

Nothing except you, I remind myself

The driveway is ee, so I take a deep breath and open the front door

"Hello?" I step cautiously inside, feeling a first shiver of panic I know I lied to Garrett about co out for me, but it seemed overdramatic to need an escort back to my own home Now that I’ in unprepared If Alex is ho but silence If he was here, there would be a briefcase thrown carelessly on the chair in the foyer, his wallet and keys on the console There’s no sign of hi boxes froe closet and take them upstairs to the master suite I start in my closet, thenthe boxes with the trappings of s back again, but instead, I find myself worn out by the ner clothes, all the ti down the perfect pair of flesh-toned pumps; that navy dress I wore just the once As I fill the boxes with things I’ve barely touched into do with it all now--as if it will even fit in the tiny closet of my new apartment

Then I reach the bedside table and see the note propped there for the first tie, in Alexander’s masculine scrawl

They need er We’ll talk about everything when I return